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Can WiMAX live up to the hype? |
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Written by Kory Mohr
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Wednesday, 07 December 2005 |
Amended from ferret.com.au:
US-based iSuppli’s market research firm’s
recent report on WiMAX noted over the last few years, the wireless
technology has been hyped as the broadband wireless technology of the
future. WiMAX is said to provide a single solution for a variety of
applications, including last-kilometre fixed broadband access, wireless
backhaul for mobile phone sites and as an upgrade to Wi-Fi hot spots.
However, according to iSuppli, the
802.16-based WiMAX standard will primarily be limited to serving niche
market applications in the immediate future. In each of the market
segments being targeted by WiMAX, there are competing wireline and/or
wireless technologies, the market researcher noted. To gain adoption,
WiMAX will either have to displace a competing technology or provide a
supplementary application.
Because of this, in the short term, it will
be extremely difficult for WiMAX to gain widespread penetration into
the fixed and portable wireless broadband markets in developed nations.
By 2010, less than 5 percent of broadband
subscribers will use WiMAX as a fixed wireless broadband access
technology, according to the market researcher’s projection. “With
WiMAX facing tough competition from entrenched competitors, its usage
over the next few years will be limited to broadband access in rural
and underserved areas of the developed nations and as a backhaul
technology for mobile sites and public Wi-Fi hot spots,” says Jagdish
Rebello, a principal iSuppli analyst for communication systems and
components.
In the portable broadband access market,
WiMAX’s most potent competitor will be Wi-Fi, iSuppli said. Wi-Fi will
remain the dominant short-range wireless broadband standard over the
next few years, effectively freezing out WiMAX, it suggested.
In the longer term, iSuppli believes that the
most significant market for WiMAX will be for mobile broadband, for
example, vehicular access to broadband services.
However, in some areas the bet that Intel placed on WiMAX is beginning to show signs of paying off.
Thirteen carriers from around the globe are
now deploying the world’s first fixed WiMAX networks to deliver
high-speed broadband wireless access to businesses and residences based
on Intel’s technologies. And 11 more carriers are preparing to deploy
WiMAX networks by the end of this year.
•
The aviation industry’s dream of flying pilotless cargo planes may be
grounded by a lack of radio frequencies to control the aircraft.
The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) industry is
lobbying regulators to let military UAVs use civilian airspace and
airports, to pave the way for cargo airlines to operate cheap, crewless
flights, reports
NewScientist magazine.
Ohn Mettrop, spectrum policy chief at the
UK’s Civil Aviation Authority, told a Royal Aeronautical Society
conference that UAV makers have overlooked the high demand of UAVs for
radio links for things like remote control and air traffic control.
The UAV industry must wait for the World
Radiocommunication Conferences in 2007 and 2010 to claim the necessary
frequencies. But it will face tough competition from emerging
communications services such as WiMAX wireless broadband.
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